WeWork’s announcement of a meat ban last week has attracted a great deal of attention in the media but a quiet announcement put out on the firm’s website on Friday will have more profound implications for the facilities management, workplace and commercial property worlds. In September the firm will launch WeWork Space Services which is targeted at small and medium sized businesses including those that are not current members. It claims that the service will be a ‘holistic, one-stop’ that will meet the real estate needs of its target audience, including finding them the most appropriate office space and resources as well as free membership of WeWork spaces around the world.

It will do this by creating a network of landlords alongside its own properties to whom it will introduce potential tenants, who it will also vet and categorise on behalf of the landlord. The new service will be piloted initially in New York City, where it currently has 52 buildings. In the announcement, WeWork claims that the service will “allow us to retain our relationships with existing members who would otherwise have left a WeWork space by providing them with alternate real estate solutions while benefiting from continued access to our network and community. At the same time, it will allow us to build new long-term and lasting relationships with small and mid-sized companies that are at a critical phase of their growth.”